[cap-talk] Sign of progress?

[Charles Landau]

On 1/10/11 2:11 PM, Mark S. Miller wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 1:52 PM, Charles Landau <clandau at macslab.com
> <mailto:clandau at macslab.com>> wrote:
>
>     A letter on WSJ.com, published in the Wall Street Journal, 1/8/11 p.C4,
>     on the earlier article "Your Apps Are Watching You" [1], which disclosed
>     that some iPhone and Android apps gather and track personal information
>     without the user's knowledge:
>
>     "Perhaps we need an enable switch in the app settings that empowers the
>     consumer to chose what data can be accessed and another one that
>     determines what data can be transmitted by the app. ..."
>
>
> I've been following the WSJ "Watching you" series with interest. I agree
> they are doing a great service by raising awareness and well-placed
> worries about these issues. But the phrase you quote above does not
> raise my hopes. If we allow app X to read ("access") data D and E but
> only allow it to transmit E, ...

I agree that the writer's proposal, taken literally, is not feasible to 
implement. But the comment does reflect an awareness that
(1) the user could have power over the application,
(2) different data may need to be protected differently,
(3) the distinction between reading and writing is important.